War and Peace in Modern Europe, 1900-the Present

(5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In this module, we discuss how Europe was defined and redefined through war, military occupations, civil conflicts, and peace agreements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Drawing on examples of various -and often interrelated- conflicts, we discuss several major questions: How did international and civil conflicts shape European culture and politics? Why was the twentieth century so violent? How did Europe become divided into "right" and "left," and "East" and "West"? How are these conflicts remembered or forgotten today? We will compare case studies from across the continent, we ask how the map of the continent has changed over the past century and whether it is possible to write a single history of Europe.